Patriotic Mousse Tarts

Hello Crafting Chicks readers! I’m Ashley from Simply Designing and I am absolutely THRILLED to be a new contributor here! Today I am going to show you how to make a delicious and simple Patriotic Mousse Tart with homemade vanilla mousse and handcrafted chocolate stars! It sounds complicated, but I promise it is actually really simple!

These are the perfect treat to bring to a 4th of July party or any other patriotic celebration! They look really impressive but aren’t that difficult or time consuming to make!

Patriotic Mousse Tarts

Ingredients:

Store bought shortbread tarts

3 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar, divided

1 cup whipping cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate candy melts, red and blue

(3) disposable icing bags

Directions:

First you will want to print out a star template. You can download my template HERE, or create your own. Print and place your template on a cookie sheet and place a piece of wax paper over the template.

Next, begin by melting your candy melts in a disposable icing bag. You can see all of my tips for melting chocolate here but basically, slow and steady wins the race with this task!

Fill your icing bag about half way full with candy melts, twist the end shut and microwave at 40% power for 20-30 seconds at a time. After every 20 second interval, massage the bag of candy melts. When the candy melts are close to being done, microwave at 10 second intervals. When there are just a few chocolate pieces left, simply massage the bag until all of the chocolate is melted. It is really easy to over heat chocolate in the microwave so be careful!

Cut a small tip off of your icing bag and pipe your stars.

If your home is cool you can let your stars set in your home. However if it is not, you can place your stars into your fridge or freezer to help them set quickly.

Next you will create your mousse.

In one bowl, mix the softened cream cheese and 1/8 cup sugar together until smooth and creamy.

In a second bowl, whip the cream, 1/8 cup sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.

Place the mixture into a disposable icing bag and pipe it into the tarts. I used a large round icing tip but if you don’t have an icing tip, you can simply cut the tip of the bag off, and pipe the mixture directly from the bag.

Top each tart with a chocolate star and enjoy!

These desserts look complicated and impressive, but really only take about 30 minutes of hands on time. They are so tasty and delicious and look amazing! And they are sure to be a huge hit at any patriotic, Memorial Day or 4th of July celebration!